
Qass. 
Book. 



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GOD'S WAY OF LEADING THE BLIND. 






DISCOURSE 
OOMMEMOEATIVE OF THE DEATH 

P 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



/ 



GOD'S WAY OF LEADING THE BLIND, 
A 

I3ISCOUKSE 

GOMMEMOEATIVE OF THE DEATH 

O F 

ABRAHAM LIi\GOLN, 



DELIVERED BY 



REV. HENRY E. BUTLER 

IN THE 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
K eese vi I le, 1\. Y., 

APRIL 23, 1865. 



^nrltngton : 

FREE PRESS BOOK AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE. 

1865. 







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5>^ 



.^OfCONGfif^ 






Keeseville, N. Y., April 24th, 1865. 
Rev. H. ¥,. Butler, 

Dear Sir : 

We, llie undersigned, for ourselves, and on behalf 
of mail}' otiiers who listened to the eloquent and christian discourse, delivered 
by you in the Congregational Church in this village on the last Sabbath, in 
commemoration of the death of the late lamented President of the United 
States, respectfully request a copy of the same for publication. 
Kespectfully yours, 
SILAS ARNOLD, WILLIS MOULD, 

N. KIXGSLAND, W. C. WATSOX, Jr. 

J. R. ROMEYN, 



Keeseville, N. Y., April 26th, 1865. 
Gentlemen : — Your request affords me grateful evidence of the kind 
sympathj' of my congregation with their pastor. If the interests of Truth 
and Christian Freedom, with which our late Chief Magistrate was identified, 
can bo advanced by so humble an efibrt, the accompanying discourse is at 
your disposal. 

A^ery truly yours, 

II. E. BUTLER. 
Messrs. Silas Arnold, N. Kingslaxd, and others 



DISCOURSE. 



Js\i.\ii M.ir. IC. — And 1 will bring ihe blind hij a ivay tliut Ihey knew not ,• 
/ will lead them in paths that they have not known ; I will make dark- 
ness liijht before them, and crooked things straight. These things will 
T do nnio them and notforsdke them. 



There are times in human history Avheu we re- 
alize how full of meaning are the words we use in 
daily speech. In ordinary life they seem the product 
of a breath, the common coin which passes with car- 
rent stamp at all the marts of trade. The word, wdiich 
is the body, seems to have capacity unfilled. The 
thought, which is its soul, is only a germ, into wdiich 
new life being thrpwn, the growth is manifest. But 
when the thought receives impulse from the feeling ; 
when emotion with overflowing stream crowds upon 
its barriers in speech, and the heart is filled to its ut- 
most with the great tidal wave that comes surging in- 
land from the wide deep ocean of human passion, 'tis 
then the infant goes forth to do a strong man's labor, 
'tis then that ordinary sounds born upon the lips are 
intensified with meaning, and the great depths of feel- 
ing, broken up, refuse to be contained within the 
bounds of articulate expression. At such a time, a 
tear writes volumes as it trickles down from the im- 



6 

passioned eye ; a low deep sigh, a broken wail of 
sorrow moves multitudes to pity; a warm, close grasp 
of the hand writes love and sympathy on every cham- 
ber and gallery of the heart, and the deep full breath 
tells of heroic resolution, such as conquers armies and 
saves nations from destruction. 

Four years ago, a word came trembling over the 
magnetic wire. Unconscious of the woe it was to 
bring to millions of before happy hearts, it came, a 
spectre sad and terrible, and sat beside the hearthfire 
where the children play, and where the parents find 
their sweetest joy, and where the loved ones meet to 
share their home of sympathy. It was but the echo 
of a single gun, taking life in word ; but there was 
no hamlet so obscure, or street so busy that it did not 
grimly stalk through, tossing gaunt arms of desolation, 
and in dim shadow then retreating as if a nearer view 
might bring forth horrors not yet ripe for the gaze. 
We had read in olden story how discord sometimes 
rent nations in twain ; how brothers of common blood 
and language had sometimes sheathed their weapons 
in each other's bodies, and traitors sometimes strove to 
overturn established governments, till on the ruined 
wall they could erect their own impious building. — 
Perchance we who are younger had listened to some 
aged grandparent, as with youthfui fire still kindled 
by warm feeling in his heroic heart, he had told us of 
the early struggle to establish here a home of liberty, 
a land of free hearts and brave hands. We had read, 
too, in the inspired Book, how brother should deliver 



up the brother unto death, how father should be ar- 
rayed against the son, and son against the father. But 
all these were in the past. On other national life the 
demon of destruction might fasten his fang, on ours it 
were incredible : to other households the sword might 
be given to separate, to ours some guardian angel 
would be sent for sure defence. And thus it was that at 
the first, civil war meant little more than a dress par- 
ade with burnished arms unused to cut through bone 
and sinew, a pleasant excursion for home-bred youths 
to sunnier climes, and in a few short months a happy 
welcome to homes of loyalty and love amid the proud 
rejoicings of admiring throngs. We did not know then 
that civil war meant blood and carnage, fire and deso- 
lation. We did not know that it meant weeds of 
mourning in every street and by-way of the broad 
Republic — a vacant seat at every hearthfire, a man- 
gled corpse laid low at every threshold — a heroic 
heart going to its Maker amid the iron tramp of the 
war horse, the roar of cannon and the fierce cry of 
armed combatants. We thought when that brave man, 
heroic Ellsworth, was murdered in the streets of Alex- 
andria, that the foul demon let loose upon us had 
done his full Avork. We thought when tidings came of a 
discomfited army fleeing from the battle field, choking 
the streets with the rush of fugitives which so short a 
lime before witnessed the gay advance, that we knew 
fully what the words meant, and no dark spirit from 
the deep abodes could cast more awful meaning into 
words we now were forced to hear. But the word was 
not yet filled. It needed more brave hearts hushed to 



8 

(ice I) stillness, more widows' tears wrung from eyes 
long watching for returning husbands, an*l reaching 
out their hand in night dreams only to be mocked at 
wakinii", or with still more bitter mockery opening the 
house door to receive at last a broken body, or a blood- 
less corpse. It needed the wail of orphaned children, 
asking in childish wonder for the father who had 
tossed them on his knee and promised new joy Avhen 
he should come back from the wars. It needed sterner 
resolution in the patriot hearts at liome, stronger en- 
deavor to uphold the national honor. It needed too 
the wan, pale faces which flit before us, skeleton-like, 
in the southern darkness; starved by exquisite cruel- 
ty; perished by inhuman neglect; buried, if at all, by 
hands almost as dead as theirs who had passed the 
suffering, or tossed aside with pitiless unconcern by dead 
hearts, yet cumbering God's earth in living bodies. It 
needed defeat, again and again, more widows and more 
orphans, more bereaved parents and sorrowing sisters; 
and in it all we were taught what meaning might be 
thrown into a single word, Avhen God's Almighty 
Hand was busy filling up its history. 

But one day, not long ago, the bells rang out a 
merry peal, and then we heard a new word — Victory. 
The nation went wild with great delight. Joy took 
h)Ose rein : and while some lone hearts wept to think 
of those who never should come back to them, others 
wept that soon in joy they should welcome returning 
loved ones, and others shouted in gay exuberance of 
delight. At last we had sounded the depths, and 



9 

knew that in the end civil war meant victory and 
peace. The bells might ring, for they were ringing 
life and death — life to a regenerated nation — death 
to all rebellion. No wonder peace seemed a word 
most beautiful. The grey streaks of the morning light 
had come from over the eastern mountain — now we 
could discern the sun's disc not fully risen, but surely 
the sun in all his beauty. Soon the broad circum- 
ference should stand forth in beams of glory, and the 
world should see a spectacle such as it had never 
seen — a re-united nation, not bound together by bonds 
of brass and iron, but by that stronger chain, forged 
in Heaven, common love, common respect for what is 
good and true. 

Were we blind'/ By a way that we knew not 
of, a wise guide had been leading us. Had the word 
which became real to us lour years ago yet deeper 
meaning ? 

A week ago another word came trembling over 
the magnetic wire. It sped throughout the villages, 
it lingered in the cities — a sound of awful omen — a 
word which Americans will henceforth shudder to re- 
peat, just as in other times there were some names so 
full of evil, direful import,that king nor peasant would 
dare to speak them. It seemed as if the lightnings of 
heaven, chained by man to do his bidding, strove to 
assert their natural freedom and spurned so terrible a 
messiige, almost conscious of the woe such news would 
bring to a million happy homes. It almost seemed as 

if having carried the first tidings far over the land, 
2 



10 

they too were paralyzed and for a little while could 
not be roused to tell the full details of the monstrous 
crime. For they must tell that the great national heart 
was wounded in the person of its chief, and the life 
blood oozing from the brow of that noble sufferer was 
crimsoning a broad land and draping every heart with 
the sadness of a funeral train. They must tell that be- 
neath the clear, pure sky of heaven, was wrought a 
deed so fearful, so malignant, that Baal, Ashtaroth and 
Lucifer, princes of the lowest depths of darkness, might 
strike hands with a mortal man in horrid glee at its 
consummation; that a miscreant yet breathed God's air 
and walked God's earth, .whose heart could calmly plan 
and whose hand could coolly execute a peerless crime 
in christian history. Poor human nature ! Is it then, 
Christ Divine, so low a depth of sin from which 
Thou didst leave Thy pure abode to save us ? Is it 
then possible, Holy God, so fearful a downward 
growth shall be permitted when Thy restraining hand 
is taken off? Is it then, Spirit Wise, a soul un- 
heeding Thy kind pleading, refusing Thy beseechings, 
that rivals demons while he yet walks in the sem- 
blance of a man ? Pity us, great Savior, restrain us 
good Lord, make us to heed, kind Spirit, and change 
human nature to Thy perfect likeness. 

Thus we learned in the moment of our joy when 
the end seemed nigh, that to those words, civil war, 
whose meaning has by God's providence been unfold- 
ed daily during the past few years, a deadlier element 
might be added — the assassination of our nation's chief, 



11 

the attempted murder of those whose counsel gave the 
nation wisdom. So have we learned how human hate 
and fierce malignity in these latter days can rival that 
of ages long ago. It was not merely that our Execu- 
tive died in office; such had been the case before. Not 
merely that a man had been murdered who was dear 
to us; such happens often in this world of sin. But 
the whole transaction combines refined cruelty with 
pagan barbarism, cunning invention with desperate 
resolution, cool hatred with the sneaking meanness of 
a coward. We feel that it is no wonder a paralysis 
seemed to deaden every heart, and make men speech- 
less with the tide of great emotion, soon to burst forth 
in united cry for merited justice on the abettors and 
executors of a deed so terrible. 

And who was he thus stricken ? The Nation's 
Head — the Power ordained of God, since God by Pro- 
vidence had placed him in the honored position, to 
whom a willing people had made themselves subject for 
their good. To raise the red hand of murder against 
the private citizen is to dare the vengeance of Jeho- 
vah, to mar His image in whose likeness man was 
made. To pierce the Ruler's breast is to stab the 
national heart, to destroy the sacredness of social bonds, 
insult the majesty of law, to invoke the demon anar- 
chy, a crime of double dye, in that by declaration of 
Holy Writ : "Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth 
the ordinance of God." 

And who was he thus stricken? The Nation's 
Guide. We do not claim unerring judgment of the 
past. We only take the history, and in it see God's 



12 

hand writing lessons for our instruction, where men 
who live and speak are the letters, Avhere the daily 
and yearly events are the syllables and sentences. In 
this no one can but see, whatever may have been his 
own personal desires, that Divine Power raised up 
and brought forward this man whom we now mourn, 
to be our leader through the Red Sea of great trouble, 
through the wilderness of weary tribulation. For 
this God fitted him by early training. For this He 
gave that temperament and disposition which drew 
forth from the people a confidence in him who went 
before, and caused the nation once and again to trust 
his leadership. Had he been more rash, more impe- 
tuous, mistakes would have occurred more often, and 
the lurking fear lest sometimes a fatal step should be 
hastily taken would have withdrawn that growing 
confidence which felt so much secure as long as he 
was at the helm. Had he been less ardent the eager- 
ness of the follower would have oftener outstripped 
the leader, and watchful enterprise rebuked the tardi- 
ness of delay. As it was, we see in reading what now 
is history, how Divine wisdom gave us at the right 
time the man best fitted for the carrying on of His 
purpose, whatever tbat purpose may have been, as 
we believe to the uniting of our nation. 

He was a patriot. It is not the means used, the 
words employed that make a true loyalist ; and this 
has been a fault in public opinion during these 
last years — the assertion that loyalty consists only in 
allegiance to any one set of opinions. It is the pur- 



13 

pose straightforward and earnest to seek in every du- 
teous way the country's good. The single object be- 
fore the patriot's eye is the honor, glory, in a word, 
the well-being of his country. Single acts may fail 
of furthering this end, because to none of us is given 
an omniscient eye. And so we cannot doubt, before 
him always stood the Union and well-being of his 
country. To join again the separated parts and make 
a nation strong and righteous was the object of his 
effort. Union as he declared was first, whatever 
stood in its path must be put aside. It might be 
that blood alone could thoroughly cement the bond. 
It might be that an institution subversive of humani- 
ty's best interests must be uprooted ; but the patriot 
saw the end, kept close to that, and would use the 
means which Providence should place within his 
power. 

And who was he thus stricken ? A philanthropic 
lover of humanity. To love mankind not for the sake 
of the benefit they may be to us, not for our own se- 
curity or improvement, to do them good and seek 
their happiness is both noble and rare. For this a 
kind heart and generous purpose are required. To 
drop a penny into the beggar's open hand, because 
his cry is troublesome, is selfishness. To aid the suf- 
fering merely because the sight of woe distresses re- 
fined taste, is deserving of no praise. To do both from 
hearty love for human good, is to be like the blessed 
Master. And as we stand beside his grave, there's 
none but feels that within that breast now stilled. 



14 

malice and malignity were strangers. The good he 
sought was to unite this people. Hence there was 
respect to every class, and all unite to-day in giving 
him credit for great honesty of heart, when with his 
own words he says he has no desire to triumph over 
anybody, but rather that the right should prevail by 
whatever means God chooses. Even his enemies who 
wickedly have striven to subvert good government, 
were such only because they were opposed to right ; 
and when they would accept a peace, he was ready, as 
the events of the last few weeks were showing, to 
proffer them the olive branch. And when all other 
tongues shall have done telling his human love and 
friendship — if such a time should ever come — that 
race down-trodden for long ages, but destined in 
God's OAvn good time and way to play a mighty part 
in human life and destiny, will, if true to their high 
privilege and duly, take up the harp of praise and 
join the glad acknowledgement of their indebtedness 
to the philanthropist, who, loving men whom God has 
made, whatever be their rank or color, lifted from them 
the degrading yoke, and left them free to develop 
every capacity toward the grand perfection of all 
good. 

Once again we ask, who was he thus stricken? 
And the answer comes from every congregation in this 
land which met to join his funeral train, from every 
home where his name is spoken with respect, from all 
these habiliments of woe which a nation sadly puts on 
as a poor expression of her grief; He was the nation's 



16 

friend. No stately potentate with guards and lack- 
eys to do him honor and drive away the approaching 
subject. The sad circumstances of his death prove, 
alas, how much he trusted the people, his brothers. 
From humble life he rose by the force of his own me • 
rit, and to the people he always seemed as one of 
them. The pioneer boy became the murdered Presi- 
dent, and through all these intervening years he nev- 
er was aught than a citizen among citizens, though 
w^earing a crown more imperial than that of Ctesar. — 
That single request, " Pray for me, my fellow coun- 
trymen," as he left his western home to enter on new^ 
duties at the capital, took him straightway to the 
Christian heart and made the ruler's name a familiar 
sound at many a family altar. The frequent occa- 
sions since, when even better tidings have been told, 
that he himself consulted the Divine oracles in the 
midst of his arduous duties, and on his bended knees 
sought Divine guidance and Divine pardon for his 
own soul, coupled with those now remarkable utteran- 
ces of his last public message, give us ground for 
Christian hope that the eternal crown of glory is won, 
and his name is now written among the saved. For 
however noble, brave and patriotic, wanting this, a 
humble belief in Jesus Christ for pardon and salva- 
tion, the loveliest natural graces will be found to lack 
the one good thing which counterbalances a uni- 
verse of worldly riches. The Christian hope is the 
greatest joy, the crown of earth, the glory of the 
skies. With ic the lowest servant in royal court shall 



16 

rule a, Heavenly Kingdom in which the proudest mon- 
arch with only earthly possessions is unworthy to be- 
come a servant. 

But we cannot in a few brief words fitly charac- 
terize the event which has robbed us of a President, 
or iti full measure portray his life and mission whose 
death the friends of liberty throughout the world will 
mourn. We are yet too blind, we are yet groping in 
paths we know not of. But thank God, a hand of un- 
erring wisdom prepares the way, and through tlie 
thick and murky gloom comes a voice clear as heaven's 
own breath, saying, " I will make darkness light be- 
fore them and crooked things straight." This is the 
ground of courage for the future. And that we may 
not spend this hour without some attempt to know 
His will more fully and to do it with more readiness, 
let us take this thought to our hearts as we stand be- 
side his grave with all the nation. It is God who 
thus leads the blind. Mysterious though it be, taken 
just when his services seemed to be most needed, 
when he was about to add to his other names the most 
glorious of all, that of the Peace Maker ; yet be 
assured it was Almighty wisdom that brought the 
event to pass, and if Almighty wisdom, then Almigh- 
ty love. We may never unroll the concealed lesson. 
Those who come after certainly shall. 

We may strengthen faith in His good providence 
from the history of the past. It is not the first vile act on 
record. France has more than once witnessed the like. 
In the sixteenth century a king sat on the throne in a 



17 

time of terrible confusion. Contending parties sprinkled 
the streets of Paris with each others' blood. The king, 
to give strength to his throne, allied himself with the 
Protestants. In three months afterward, a Dominican 
monk was prevailed upon to regard the murder of the 
king as not only lawful but meritorious. He fasted, 
prayed, partook of the sacraments, sought access to 
the monarch, and plunged the fatal knife into his body. 
God's providence was soon seen overruling the wrath 
of man, for the next king was the recognized leader 
of the Huguenots, and gave to France the memory of 
the White Plumed Henry of Navarre, brave and he- 
roic. He, too, having reigned for years with wisdom, 
and just beginning a scheme for pacifying the reli- 
gious wars of P]urope, which, if carried out, would 
have changed sooner the intolerant superstitions of 
Europe into the freedom of the Reformation, was 
murdered basely as w^as his predecessor. God's provi- 
dence again was seen, though the lesson took more 
years for its unfolding, and the God of nations was 
acknowledged. 

So in another country, parallel to our own in the 
deep sorrow it excited and the interest with which 
the friends of liberty everywhere regarded it. For 
long years a heroic people had been struggling for 
independence. Battled and disappointed they would 
never yield. Better open the dikes which shut the 
sea from off the land, than submit Holland and her 
Protestantism to a foreign yoke. But one man was 
the head, heart and hand. His voice guided, his arm 
controlled, his heart devised all for public good. His 



18 

people loved him with self-sacrificing devotion, equal- 
ling that of any nation since. They would make him 
king, but no other. The freedom-loving world ad- 
mired, loved, looked upon his life as the most import- 
ant to the cause of liberty of any man's wdio had lived 
within the century. The assassin struck a blow. — 
England was paralyzed, Germany put on mourning, 
Holland reeled and staggered, blind and faint ; and 
when the Prince of Orange sank to earth, it seemed 
as if the death of liberty was an accomplished fact. — 
But from above another eye was watching the event, 
and though it took yet more long years, the result was 
that Holland became free and Protestant, and Wil- 
liam's cruel death gave Freedom new life. So is it 
in every mystery of His dealing. It is a power divine 
that governs thus. 

If He thus governs then be assured the instru- 
ments of His will shall never be wanting. No man, 
or set of men, are indispensable to Him. When one 
is removed, having accomplished His will, the plan 
goes on. His purpose is not hindered, it ripens eve- 
ry hour. So was it in the cases noted. So was it in 
the early ages of the Church. The l)lood of the mar- 
tyrs was the seed of the Church. So is it now. Another 
by the harmonious working of our Constitution steps 
into the vacant place, to whom our duty is trans- 
ferred, for whom we pray unerring guidance. If He 
rules, then we have ground for confidence and joy. It 
may not suit our little plans, our seeming wisdom, 
but He works majestic on — Blessed be His name, 



19 

unmoved by aughfc from the accomplishment of His 
own wise plan. 

There is one duty in such startling providences 
which for a moment claims our notice. It is to con- 
sider fully and act Avith wisdom. The recoil from 
such a blow awakens passions which only the most 
strong and prudent will govern wisely. We have, as 
citizens and christians, great duties to perform, duties 
which, with the memory of the illustrious dead before 
us, render all appeal to excited passions — passions 
too which are among the worst of human nature, en- 
tirely out of place. Considerate determination is de- 
manded. It is " no time for angry declamation. This 
act may be made to embitter present divisions, may 
rouse the dormant passion of revolution, may sharpen 
the axe of the executioner." Let justice have her 
due, let judgment be measured to the guilty, let the 
majesty of law be sufficiently vindicated — but let 
America never forget she is the foremost christian natioii 
of the world. The Bible is her corner stone, a Christ- 
ianity of Bible-teaching her glory. America then 
must do a thoroughly Christ-like work. He is the 
model of nations as of individuals. I yield to no 
man in my love for the land that gave me birth, for 
the flag that symbolizes our best national hope. I 
yield to none in desire to honor the gallant dead 
slain on every field ; in pity for the thousand wid- 
owed homes and orphaned children ; in love and ad- 
miration for the virtues of him so lately filling a 
martyr's grave; or in abhorrence of all attempt to se- 
parate the nation Heaven hath joined. And with full 



20 

belief in that strong Calvinistic creed which makes 
justice the central attribute of God's immacuhite na 
tiire — an attribute that demands satisfaction tliough 
it cost the death of His beloved son — I yield to none 
in desire that justice should bo measured to all who 
contributed to such iniquity. But when I remember 
that if justice be unmixed with mercy it would make 
two-thirds of this people executioners of the other 
third, and possibly " convert ruined conspirators into 
martyrs," v*dien I remember the seventy times seven 
of the forgiving Jesus, even then not marking the 
limit, when I consider the interests of the future, the 
days when the feelings now roused in our breast shall 
be forever stilled, and we in some forgotten grave be 
mouldering into dust, while the nation great and glor- 
ious lives, I am not prepared to join the mad cry, 
"let there be no more mercy." When, too, I recall 
that scene of the world renowned dramatist — a Jew 
cruel, unrelenting, yet completely just, demanding 
justice in his bond, and then look on the noble Portia 
confessing judgment, pleading while she yet acknow- 
ledges the claim, I cannot but think that every Shy lock, 
if he choose, shall take his pound of flesh, but shall 
forever miss the immortal glory of forgiveness, and 
the chance to make the bleeding, dead Antonio, his 
eternal friend. 

Nor so long as I remember that if justice had 
been meted out to you and me, if justice had let fall 
the blow, long, long suspended over our heads, we 
should ere this have been forever punished ; so long 
as I remember how God himself, upholding justice, 



21 

sent Incarnate Mercy for our salvation ; and when I 
turn to Calvary's cross, and from the pale, bloodless 
lips of Him suspended in mid-air, hear that last cry of 
sinless man, "Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do," — a cry which pardoned an adul- 
terer, took a thief to paradise, welcomed a murderer 
to His company, and has given grace and Heaven to 
many an outcast taken even from the vilest sinks on 
earth ; Avhen I remember that I myself, guilty in his 
sight, need mercy, must have mercy if I live forever, 
then and so long I cannot, nay, 1 dare not with up- 
raised hand pray God to send any man to hell, or be- 
lieve that his grace is insufficient to save, as he de- 
clares, to the very uttermost, the meanest wretch who 
crawls upon His footstool. 

Do not misunderstand my words. Conspira- 
tors against national and individual life must 
be punished. Their lives are forfeit. Treason 
must be made so black a crime that the very word 
will be ominous. Our country under God's favor 
must be made securely one. But there is danger lest 
revenge, a passion always base, should mingle with a 
righteous indignation. America's spirit should be 
that of Samuel when he hewed the guilty Agag in 
pieces, sad, serious, determined, God-like. Above 
all, let America never forget, while she is powerful 
and proud, while she yet wears the widowed weeds of 
mourning, while she is just, as just she should be, — that 
she is Christian, and Jesus-Christ in all His excel- 
lence is her exalted model. In His spirit we may 
drive the miscreant traders from the temple they have 



22 

profaned, and be the instruments of bringing such 
woe as He denounced on every Chief Ruler and High 
Priest who wickedly has compassed to defile our na- 
tional Jerusalem, and with him we may weep with 
yearning love for those misguided ones who have not 
known the things which were for their peace. 

In such a spirit America can go forward in her 
proud mission, secure of the result, for God is with the 
nation which is his servant. To high and noble des- 
tiny he has called her, and if she twines in every fold 
of her starry flag the banuer of the peace-loving Im- 
manuel, the Prince of Peace shall always make her 
His abode. The end may yet be distant. But in His 
favor the work of judgment shall yield to one of mer- 
cy. The bow of promise spans the cloud, and so sure- 
ly as it does we know that God is love. Courage 
then. Christian nation, even in this dark hour. Dark- 
ness is made light by Him. Onward in the glorious 
race for human progress. If true to God, ages hence 
shall find thee growing better. Add more stars to 
thy banner, if pure and peaceful thou canst save them 
all. Be the foremost to elevate and bless the race, 
and God will not forsake thee. 

Once more we turn to thee, thou illustrious 
dead, and lay the chaplet of our love upon thy tomb. 
Mid all the dangers through which thy way was past 
God kept thee till thy work — that which thyself an- 
nounced — the re-possession of the places and proper- 
ty seized from the Union had been done. City after 
city re-taken, the chief army of the enemy surrender- 



23 

ed. On the day when the flag of thy love was to be 
again raised where it had first been lowered, thou 
wast slain. Not for a life unfinished do we mourn, 
though thou wast now girding thyself for the greater 
victories of peace. God saw the end though we do 
not. An earlier death might have left the world in 
doubt. New measures might have been depreciated. 
Now by a single stroke, and that too by an oneuiy, 
thy deeds are passed to history, thy name becomes 
immortal. A friend would not have placed upon thy 
brow the martyr's crown. An enemy has made the 
cause of which thou wast the representative hallowed 
with thy blood. The altar fires of liberty burn anew. 
A world looks on their glow. Thy name shall live, 
thy memory shall be a nation's care. That hand 
which gave America a community with other nations 
in a murdered ruler, shall receive the execration of a 
world ; while round thy tomb the generations taught 
by thy name heroic self devotion, shall come from 
every land where Freedom is no strange word, and 
with the wreaths of an undying love crown thy grave 
anew, or pressing low the bended knee thank God for 
human freedom, rising to swear new fealty upon an 
altar where America's murdered president has laidhis 
martyred life. 



LB S '12 



^ 



